Racing trainer Bill Turner fighting for his life in hospital after fall from horse

A racing trainer is critically ill in hospital after he fell from the horse he was riding on the gallops.

Bill Turner, who turned 78 on Sunday, suffered a serious head injury in the incident at his yard in Dorset yesterday. The experienced horseman was rushed to hospital where medics found that he had fractured his skull.

Presenter Matt Chapman told Sky Sports Racing said he had spoken to the family of Turner, whose wife Tracy and daughter Kathy help run the stable on the Dorset and Somerset border. Chapman said: "He was riding a colt on the gallops and there was some sort of accident. Bill fell on to his head and fractured his skull.

“He is in hospital on a ventilator right now and the family will have to make a tough decision in the next 24 to 48 hours on whether to keep the ventilator going.

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“I would urge the racing world to all say a prayer for Bill.”

Turner, who has 12 horses in his care and holds a combined licence with the British Horseracing Authority, has sent out six winners of the Brocklesby Stakes at Doncaster - the first two-year-old race of the Flat season.

The run dates back to 1996 when Indian Spark was ridden to victory on Town Moor by Tim Sprake and up until the record five-length success of Mick's Yer Man in 2013, a horse ridden by his grandson Ryan While.

At the time, Turner's stable had just had one of its most successful years with 29 winners and almost £100,000 in prize money.

And further profit was gained when he sold Mick's Yer Man privately to Hong Kong, where the sprinter was renamed Always Win.

Turner trains both flat and jump horses, enjoying success with both according to form records dating back to 1988.

The stable's next runner is expected to be Red Snapper in a five furlong nursery at Chepstow on Thursday afternoon.